A Late Night
by fourty-eight
Summary: A night in Gintoki's childhood with a group of rather sidetracked friends. No real meaning or plot.  Slightly AU because Sakamoto's there and some OOC-ness.


**AN: **Sorry for the out of character stuff. My first GinTama fanfiction, so be nice. And sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes. Entirely my fault.

**Warning:**OOC. Nothing else besides maybe some (slight) Shounen-ai if you look for it.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Gintoki?"<p>

The sudden question startled him out of his doze and he turned dull red eyes accusingly at Katsura as he wiped the drool off his face, ignoring the disgusted face of Takasugi and Sakamoto's unabashed snickering.

It was late in the night already and they were by themselves because Shouyou-sensei had left on some business that had gotten extended. Since they were older, and found out that Gintoki could cook, it was deemed safe for Shouyou-sensei to leave them for longer periods now.

He rubbed at his eyes, trying to wake himself up as a clothed fist prodded him.

Katsura was offering him an extra blanket which Gintoki took without complaint, it was freezing tonight. The boy had his dark hair down out of his usual ponytail, wearing his sleeping robes like the rest of them but more neatly. He stared at Gintoki with determined dark brown eyes, lips pursed.

Gintoki wrapped the blanket around him like a hooded cloak that half hid his silver hair and returned the stare with a drowsy one. He noted that Takasugi and Sakamoto were staring at the both of them with impatient looks.

What happened while he was asleep?

Gintoki stared at Katsura with his usual deadpanning face, who stared back with his own serious one. Takasugi fidgeted as Sakamoto just grinned for no particular reason.

They kept staring at each other while Sakamoto kept smiling widely and Takasugi started twitching.

There was total silence. Katsura's eyes sharpened as Gintoki stared back stubbornly. Sakamoto continued to grin as Takasugi glared unimpressed at all of them.

More staring. Gintoki's eyes were stinging from not blinking, but he noticed triumphantly that Katsura's were already watery. Sakamoto lounged on his traditional bed as Takasugi growled beside him.

"What are you two even doing?" He shouted, finally fed up with everyone's lack of action, stomping his foot with a muffled thump and jabbed his finger at them.

Gintoki turned to him with an innocent look. "Eh? I didn't want to lose to Zura."

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura." Came the immediate reply from the boy, as serious as ever.

"Whatever you say, Zura." Sakamoto muttered through his snickering. The boy was promptly whacked in the face by Katsura with a pillow. Spluttering erupted from both of them when it quickly became a duel. With the pillows being used as swords.

Gintoki wondered, not for the first time, why his friends always used anything they could get their hands on like the wooden swords they practised with. He knew for a fact that using pillows as a substitute for a sword was difficult.

"What was that for?" Sakamoto demanded as he blocked another shot to his face, the pillows making soft thump as they hit each other. Takasugi was watching the two with a dark scowl.

"I said. My name. Is Katsura!" The words were emphasized by rapid hits to Sakamoto's head, which was all blocked until he swept Sakamoto's feet from the ground making the boy tumble with a squawk.

Katsura glared imperiously at Sakamoto, who was groaning by his feet. "That's what you get-" he started, but was cut off as Sakamoto grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to the ground where they started another round of tousling while hurling lame insults at each other.

Gintoki chuckled quietly as Takasugi heaved a great sigh at their antics, which was really hypocritical when Takasugi was the one who was usually fighting with Sakamoto anyway.

The two fighting boys managed to separate themselves and get off the ground, both breathing heavily as they faced off with each other with pillows back in their hands. A tumble weed rolled desolately between them with a dry wind.

Gintoki blinked confusedly. How _that_ got in here, he supposed he would never know. But he needed to get rid of it. It was going to dirty their bed sheets if it kept rolling around.

"Stop that already!" The shout came from Takasugi as he barged into the duel between Sakamoto and Katsura, all swinging their pillows at each other and irritated shouts were cut off with muffled yelling and muted whacks.

Gintoki sighed tiredly as he threw the tumble weed out of the window into the frigid night air. A gust of icy wind blew into the room and he shivered as he shut the window again. The shouting continued as he quietly settled back into his bed, taking everyone's blankets to make it more comfortable.

Warmth surrounded him comfortably, lulling him back into deep sleep as the cries of Sakamoto from Takasugi's sarcastic insults along with Katsura's passive voice softened in the beating of darkness and the faint humming of a lullaby until everything was as quiet as life could be for Gintoki.

He unconscionably stretched out from his curled position next to his sheathed sword, both of them being under the slightly worn blankets and breathed deeply, almost smiling in his sleep.

And then something fell on top of him. Hard.

"Ow!" He yelped as he tried to twist away from the heavy object- wait, it was Sakamoto's head. He growled irritatedly, giving up on crawling away from the boy when he realized that he was stuck in the traitorous blankets and opted for sitting up and whacking the other.

"What was that for?" He muttered as he clutched his stomach, waving off his friends' worried concern.

The curly haired boy didn't just have a thick head in that sense, but he had a thick head in the literal sense too.

Sakamoto laughed apologetically as he rolled of of Gintoki and rubbed the back of his head.

"Sorry about that, Kintoki-" He tried to say but was cut off when Gintoki smashed a pillow into his face from where he sat. The boy fell backwards like an old signboard that didn't want to stand.

"It's '_Gin_', not 'Kin', you idiot." He huffed with a halfhearted glare as Takasugi sneered at Sakamoto who was pouting sulkily at everyone.

He let go of his stomach with a heavy sigh as the aching slowly disappeared into a barely there sore. It wasn't that bad, but it still _hurt_. And he wasn't going to let the idiot just get away with it.

He would get his revenge later.

Katsura blinked at the array of blankets and pillows around Gintoki, before shrugging and dragging his own bed next to the boy, wriggling under the covers. He hesitated for a second when his arm bumped Gintoki's sword, but settled down with his hands folded over his middle and eyes closed.

"What are you doing, Zura?" Takasugi questioned curiously, absently whacking Sakamoto as he surged up, on the beginnings of saying something obscene about Katsura, Gintoki and beds.

The boy opened one eye to shoot them a bland look, almost akin to Gintoki's usual expression.

"I'm sleeping." He said flatly and he shut his eye again, apparently intent on ignoring the other boys.

Gintoki hummed an agreement and flopped back onto his bed while muttering something about beauty sleep that earned him a dirty look from Katsura.

"Well, it is sorta late." Sakamoto said a bit sheepishly. Gintoki didn't need to look to know the curly haired boy was smiling his trademark grin.

A pause, before the noise of footsteps and shuffling cloth sounded, ending with a small whump coming from Katsura's side.

He squinted open his eyes to see Sakamoto's own bedding being flattened out by the boy next to Katsura. The taller boy lifted the bundle of blankets and spread it out evenly among the three before laying down with the his end of one of the blanket clutched close.

Gintoki blinked but left it alone and turned to Takasugi, who was switching off the lights.

The room was plunged into darkness with a click, making everything seem gloomy and imposing. Gintoki blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust and searched the room for his last friend.

The boy was about to lay down on his own bed at the other side of the room, but froze when he glimpsed a flash of crimson and glowing silver, before relaxing when he saw that it was only Gintoki. He lifted an eyebrow at the uncharacteristically wide eyes of the other.

"What do you want?" He half-whispered to Gintoki, seemingly mindful to not disturb the two others. Although, Gintoki knew it was only because Takasugi himself was tired.

"Your blanket is over here." He replied plainly, holding up the light blue cloth from the rest.

Takasugi's olive green eyes glared with annoyance, but Gintoki didn't let that deter him and stared back with an almost pouting face.

He watched as the boy blinked before letting out a quiet snort as he got up and dragged his bed next to Gintoki. Gintoki hummed a low tune and handed over the blanket, which was snatched out of his hand before Takasugi wrapped himself securely in it.

His lips twitched into a smug smile before closing his eyes, absently thinking that the night wasn't so cold now.

"Gintoki?" The sudden question brought him out of the consuming darkness of dreams, but left him teetering on the edge of wakefulness and sleep. He managed to grumble out a reply.

The other boy continued doggedly and asked him what seemed to be the question that Katsura had first wanted to ask before everyone got so sidetracked.

"How did you meet Shouyou-sensei?"

Gintoki mumbled out a reply as he turned over sleepily.

"He followed the rumours about a demon."

Though no one was awake enough to remember the conversation the next morning.


End file.
